Hello, my name is Alexander Aegis and I am a Senior Program Manager with the United Earth Consortium. This is the first in a series of messages regarding our new contract, the Space Initiative (SI) . As a Program Manager, I will be in charge of this contract. First, a little background on the SI program.

The Earth has become a very populated place. As big as the Earth is, we are running out of room and resources. An old song lyric goes “ there's too many men, too many people, making too many problems and not much love to go around” (Genesis, Land of Confusion). It applies still today. The United Earth Government (UEG) decided to seriously start looking at space as a solution.

Currently the UEG's space activity has been limited to research and a small colony on the moon. New engine technology will allow us to travel around the solar system in a matter of months, making colonization a real possibility. This will be very expensive, which is why they decided to run it like a business. The Request for Proposals was put out about 5 years ago and here we are. The main goals of the first phase of the SI are:

-Establish permanent human settlements
-Remain profitable

I know those aren't much as in the way of goals, the actual ones are a bit more complicated and boring.

If you don't already know, the UEC is made up of many smaller corporations ( GAME NOTE: Corporate government style) . On a project of this magnitude one corporation cannot go it alone, thus the UEC was born. This setup has its ups and downs. We are able to get a large array of different business to be involved, like the construction companies and the commodity traders ( GAME NOTE: Natural Merchants and Hardy Industrialists). Space can be an expensive place, which is why it is best not left up to the government. Corporations are generally more financially responsible (GN: Merchant Society).

I think that will be all for this post, I have a lot of work to do. Next time I'll go over some of my plans and our current status.

I just finished looking over a system wide survey report (GN: System name is Qikiltrin, doubt I'll call it that very much though). It looks like we are in pretty good shape when it comes to near term expansion. There are 4 planets which we could establish colonies on. Three of them actually have Oxygen atmospheres, which will bring the costs way down for us. One of them has a methane atmosphere, so we would need to build domes.

QI looks like it will be the first to colonize. It is a rather large planet (GN: Huge) and has an Oxygen atmosphere. The probes did not turn up anything spectacular as far as resources though. We should still be able to set up mining operations if needed ( GN: 90% mineral). The sheer amount of space will be invaluable though.

QII is a small planet with an Oxygen atmosphere. The probes report is does not have much in the way of anything. I'm not sure what we will do with this planet yet.

QIV is a small with an Oxygen atmosphere as well. The soil report on this planet is excellent (GN: 148%). We will be setting up farming operations there soon I hope.

QVIII is a small (GN: Tiny) planet with a methane atmosphere. I use the term planet loosely, as our science guys are arguing about whether this is a planet or a big asteroid. Regardless, it's position and thin atmosphere allow for some good radioactive collection rates (GN: 102% radio).

We also have 2 asteroid belts in the system. A couple years ago we flew some probes by and they detected a lot of organic material (GN: 200%+ agri) in both of them. We do not have the ability to harvest them yet, but it is being planned for the future.

Something exciting happened this week as well. Scientists from the UEG discovered two warp points on the edge of our system. Warp Points have long been theorized, but now we know they are there. Hey discovered them by accident actually, flew too close with a probe years ago and it disappeared from their screens. Apparently the probes signal just got back to us.

This week I also held a meeting with the R&D heads to discuss what we will be researching. A lot of ideas were brought to the table. Several really wanted to research weapon projects. I veto'd this due to the fact there really isn't any need at the moment. If we are going to colonize the system and explore those new warp points, we need bigger and more efficient ships. All research efforts will be directed there for the time being (GN: Light Hull Construction 100%). They tell me we should have results within a few months.

Our ship design folks came up with a vessel that will allow us to set up a colony on QI. I approved it and sent it to manufacturing. We should have a Colony I class ship in a few months. We can thank the X-Caliber Corporation for the speed at which it will be done. They have made some amazing advances in Automated Manufacturing, we are lucky to have them on our team. They are a big reason why we won the contract.

I almost had the design guys work up an explorer ship, but I think I will wait until the new ship research is done. I don't want to make them obsolete too quickly.

It has been a while since my last update, but not too much of note has happened. The best news is we have established 3 new colonies in the system. QI,II,IV have all been colonized. Q1 is the large planet, so it will be multi-purpose. We have built a mine and 2 research facilities on it so far. We are currently constructing a space yard, which will increase our ability to produce ships.

QIV will be primarily a farming colony. We have already started 2 farms there. QII is a small planet that a large Research complex is being built on. We are building one here because we hope to run experiments that might be too dangerous for civilians to be around.

Our R&D department has completed their research into making some larger ships (GN: Light Hull Construction 2 researched). These aren't too much bigger than what we currently have, but they should let us fit a few more systems on board. I have asked the R&D team to look into improving the efficiency of our Ion Engines. They are still first generation technology and I would like to get more out of them (GN: Researching Ion Engines 2).

I had a look at our income sheet and it is looking good. We are brining in a very large surplus of minerals (GN: 28,000 surplus). I may need to have some more warehouses built, as we are quickly filling up. Our food supplies are also doing well since the farms on QIV came on line (GN: 11,000 food surplus). Our radioactive supply is adequate, hope to expand it in the near future though with a facility on QVIII (GN: 3,000 surplus).

That is all there really is to report. In the near future I plan to launch a new class of ship which will explore those warp points.

(The AI version of the UEC is coming along well. I have its build order working and it seems to be doing well against other AI's.).